Monday, July 09, 2012

Every single one of these 17 states has seen its unemployment rate decline since January 2011. Three of them have had unemployment drop by more than 2% (Michigan, Florida, and Nevada). The average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%. For a comparison, in January 2011 the U.S. national unemployment rate stood at 9.1%. It is currently 8.2%, meaning that the national unemployment rate has declined by just 0.9% since then. Based on these percentages, it can be said that the job market in states with new Republican governors is improving a full 50% faster than the job market nationally.

Those that elected Democratic governors in 2010...not so much. They're at the national average. But I'm sure that these data are just some massive coincidence.

William A. Jacobson notes the Twilight Zone aspect of the U.N. which has just put Iran on the UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference and Syria on the UN Human Rights Council. And why do we keep funding the UN? It's all about being happy with the appearance of world cooperation rather than the reality.

Mickey Kaus wonders if Obama had any idea how unrealistic his pledge in his 2011 State of the Union to have "a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015" was. Is Obama that clueless or that dishonest?

Sean Trende refutes the fears that conservatives have had that Justice Roberts expanded government's taxing powers. It always had that power. The Democrats just didn't want to label what they were doing a tax, but if they had, opponents would not have been able to challenge it.

Apparently, Elizabeth Warren's husband also plagiarized recipes for her family's cookbook of supposed Native American recipes. It seems to be a family practice. She contributed plagiarized recipes for "Cole Omelets with Crab Meat" and "Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing." Her husband plagiarized "Oriental Beef Stir-Fry." Can't these people even plagiarize reasonable sounding recipes for their Pow Wow Chow cookbook?

Apparently, Walter Cronkite was surprised that he got away with his liberal leanings for so long behind the mask of being non-ideological. The most trusted man in the world was not above bugging the Republicans credentials committee at their 1952 presidential convention. How is that for journalistic ethics? And Chris Matthews is satisfied to give Cronkite his dispensation, writing that "Curiously Cronkite’s liberal bent didn’t detract from his credibility or popularity." Easy for him to say. What does Matthews really know about how conservatives think?